Pickstown, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pickstown, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Pickstown lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Pickstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pickstown — the short answer
Pickstown, South Dakota: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 392 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 392 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Pickstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pickstown's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pickstown
Each reading below is measured for Pickstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPickstown runs about 180 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPickstown sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Pickstown is in
Pickstown sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pickstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charles Mix County.
What Grows in Pickstown
Every plant below cleared Pickstown's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pickstown?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Pickstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pickstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 95N65W 9AACBNitrate · 300 ft
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS - FORT RANDALL PROJECTSuperfund · 900 ft
- ABBY'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FT RANDALL BAIT & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FORT RANDALL STANDARD / DONLIN MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 95N65W 4DAAANitrate · 2400 ft
- 95N65W 8ABDDNitrate · 1.1 mi
- ARMY CORPS OF ENGRSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 96N65W36DCCDNitrate · 3.0 mi
- 96N64W31CDCBNitrate · 3.6 mi
- 96N65W17ABACNitrate · 5.0 mi
- 96N65W17ABCANitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pickstown's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Pickstown.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Pickstown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pickstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pickstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pickstown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pickstown — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (60 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pickstown
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pickstown average
Your land is one point inside Pickstown
Everything above resolves to Pickstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 392 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Pickstown Average
Pickstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pickstown
- ●One soil character for all of Pickstown
- ●Frost dates read at Pickstown's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pickstown's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pickstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pickstown, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pickstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pickstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pickstown average
How we know this about Pickstown
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pickstown’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Pickstown
When does frost risk typically end in Pickstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pickstown typically lands around Apr 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 12.
When is the first frost in Pickstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pickstown typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pickstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pickstown sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 4, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pickstown?
The federal record around Pickstown is a meaningful one — 80 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pickstown?
From about Sep 18 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pickstown's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pickstown's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Pickstown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pickstown's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 392 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pickstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pickstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 18 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pickstown, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pickstown's boundary and the 392 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pickstown's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pickstown's 392 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charles Mix County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charles Mix County
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Charles Mix County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pickstown's 392 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pickstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 392 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Pickstown-wide figureread your own land →